Pop Culture Happy Hour: The Hobbit And The Habit Of Storing Your Stuff

On this week's show, we dive into Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Glen is an extra-extra-expert, Stephen and I are novices, and Trey is somewhere in between when it comes to Tolkien, so what happens when we all see the same movie? What about the super-crisp technical side? And what does this have to do with Les Miserables?

After we get past a few hobbits and other critters, we jump into something that might come up as you're thinking about New Year's resolutions: the accumulated stuff that comes with being a pop-culture aficionado. We talk about sentimentality versus convenience when it comes to hard copies and digital copies, and we consider the future of special features and commentaries as people move away from actually buying DVDs.

And as always, we close with what's making us happy this week. Glen is happy about taking just the right angle on a film I also love; Trey found his spirits lifted by an article that shed light on a bittersweet photograph that circulated this week; Stephen is happy about the anniversary of a project he loved, and I couldn't get enough of Anne Hathaway giving Matt Lauer what-for on Today.

Next week, we'll be on vacation, but we'll be posting the audio from last weekend's live show at NPR HQ, so you'll get to hear a quiz, a year-end wrap-up, and a lot of very nice people indulging us.